$1bn investment in tourism sector for Kuwait

With investment in travel and tourism rising across the Middle East, Kuwait's new strategy for long-term tourism growth is expected to drive a 4.3% increase per year up to 2025.

A total investment of US$ 1 billion is being poured into the sector in a bid to take advantage of ever increasing visitor numbers.

In 2015 airport passenger volume rose to 10.2 million, up from an estimated ten million travellers the year before.

New report

According to a new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council tourism accounted for 1.5% of the country's total GDP in 2015 came from the tourism industry, and this is set to rise by another 0.3% by 2025.

The ‘Kuwait Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2015’ report also highlighted potential gains in leisure spending which is expected to grow by 6.2% each year to be worth KWD2.4 billion by 2025. Business travel is expected to grow each year by 5.6% per annum to hit KWD457.3 million in the same year.

Hotels

A new collection of luxury and more affordable accommodation options in the hotel sector which are underdevelopment is also expected to add to the growth of tourism in Kuwait.

Major international luxury brands such as Four Seasons are key players, as shown by this particular company intending to open its first 263-key Kuwait property at Burj Alshaya at the end of this year. They will be joined by the Mercure Kuwait in 2017, the Hilton Olympia Kuwait in 2019 and a Grand Hyatt the following year.

The World Travel & Tourism Council also predicts that tourist arrivals in Kuwait will be at a level of 440,000 by 2024, an increase from 2014's figure of 270,000.

The tourism sector in the country is also being driven by high domestic travel spend which accounted for 88.1% of direct tourism GDP last year. This is also expected to grow by

6.4% each year through to 2025.

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